INTERVIEWS

70 percent of women develop gingivitis in pregnancy and it has been linked to premature births. Dr. Amanda Sheehan of Oakland Family Dental discusses the importance of periodontal exams as part of prenatal care and gives some tips on keeping gingivitis under control.

Dr. Andrew Satlin, Chief Medical Officer at Intra-Cellular Therapies, discusses the unmet medical need for new therapies to treat schizophrenia. He also discusses how the company’s research approach attempts to target the root of the problem – looking inside the cell to better understand how cells interact and communicate, and how those interactions can manifest as disease.

Dr. Ehtisham Mahmud, Division Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at UC San Diego and the incoming president of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), discusses cutting edge research presented at the SCAI 2019 scientific sessions, new trends in interventional cardiology, and new devices and techniques being used to increase cardiac health for all patients.

May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month. Becky Niedorf, co-founder with her husband Michael, discuss their non-profit organization HOTB, Heart of the Brain. They fundraise for the UCLA Brain Tumor Center. Their daughter, Isabel, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor when she was a toddler and is now celebrating her 20th birthday. She has persevered due to cutting edge treatments at UCLA.

Jade Beutler, CEO of Emerald Health Bioceuticals talks about what the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is in the body and how to support it with the right supplements.  

Dr. Gilberto Lopes, Associate Director for Global Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, discusses the recent (Apr 2019) FDA regulatory update that approved KEYTRUDA for the first-line treatment of patients with stage III NSCLC (non-small cell lung carcinoma) who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation, or metastatic NSCLC, and whose tumors express PD-L1 [tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥1%] as determined by an FDA-approved test, with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations.

Serese Marotta, is the Chief Operating Officer of Families Fighting Flu (FFF), an advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the lives of children and families by raising awareness about the seriousness of flu and the importance of annual flu vaccination. She shares her own story of losing her 5 yr old son to influenza. She has developed educational materials and works tirelessly to help others.  

Dr. Lucie Ide, MD, PhD, discusses why new healthcare technology must be designed with the clinician’s needs in mind and how the industry must come together to fix system-level problems that technology has so far failed to solve. She also discusses overcoming physician burnout and the rise, prevalence, and cost of managing cardiometabolic conditions with technology that enables a better healthcare system by making clinicians’ jobs easier.

Dr. Shailesh Kantak, assistant professor of Physical Therapy at Arcadia University, discusses the National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to study bimanual coordination in stroke recovery.  Most stroke recovery practices focus on unimanual coordination in physical therapy. Dr. Kantak is studying, and developing a strategy, that uses both the strong and weak hand to regain strength and movement.

Dr. Steven Kaplan, a certified urologist at Mount Sinai in NY, discusses his new research in men with overactive bladder. He talks about the significance of the findings from the Phase 4, 12-week PLUS trial, what it means for urologists treating men with overactive bladder, the evolution of treatment during his career for patients with overactive bladder, the prominence of overactive bladder in men and why it remains an under-treated patient population despite 90 percent of men between 50-80 years’ experience lower urinary tract symptoms.